Annelie Pompe (born 1981) is an adventurer and athlete from

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. She grew up close to the sea and has always felt at home in the ocean and attributes this as being important to her interest in free diving. She is a professional adventurer, motivational speaker, photographer (mainly underwater), freediving instructor, yoga instructor, writer, personal trainer, helicopter pilot and coach. She has also written a book about her adventures.

Freediving

Despite considering herself a poor swimmer, Annelie Pompe is known for her achievements in competitive

freediving Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear. Besides the limits of breath- ...

. Pompe began her journey into freediving after she received her scuba certification. Within a few years, she realized that she liked diving into the water without equipment. On 5 October 2010 she broke the world record in variable weight freediving, with a dive down to 126 meters. She also claimed one individual silver medal and one team silver medal in the

AIDA ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...

world championships. She also holds the Swedish record for the deepest freedive without using flippers, 72 meters below the surface.

Mountaineering

Pompe has been sport climbing since she was 13 years old. In May 2011, she climbed

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow hei ...

as the first Swedish woman to summit from the north side. Despite marketing her attempt as a climb without oxygen, she did end up using bottled oxygen in order to make the summit. She has also climbed all seven

Seven Summits The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven traditional continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. Climbing the Seven Summits ...

(including

Puncak Jaya Puncak Jaya (; literally "Glorious Peak") or Carstensz Pyramid, Mount Jayawijaya or Mount Carstensz () on the island of New Guinea, with an elevation of , is the highest mountain peak of an island on Earth. The mountain is located in the Sudi ...

, and the last one Mount Vinson in January 2016). She has been active in other sports, winning a Swedish gold medal in fitness as well as competing in adventure racing, cross country mountain biking, and running.

References

External links

Annelie Pompe’s personal website

''National Geographic'' interview with Annelie Pompe on freediving, by Mary Anne Potts, posted 11 November 2010
1981 births Swedish freedivers Living people People from Gothenburg Swedish summiters of Mount Everest Swedish sportswomen Swedish athletes Swedish-speaking people Swedish photographers {{sweden-sport-bio-stub